Shirley Soosay's homecoming marks the end of Violet Soosay's lifelong search for her long-lost aunt. Shirley Soosay was murdered in 1980 and identified by DNA testing nearly 40 years later.
Posted: May 04, 2021 6:00 AM MT | Last Updated: May 4
Shirley Soosay from Samson Cree Nation was identified by her niece, Violet Soosay, and the work done by the DNA Doe Project.(Kern County Sheriff s Office/YouTube)
Violet Soosay never gave up the search for her aunt from Samson Cree Nation.
For almost 40 years, she travelled from Alberta
to Vancouver and Seattle, the last known places her aunt Shirley Soosay had been.
She visited hospitals, hostels, and cemeteries while on work trips in hopes of finding anything about her aunt s whereabouts. We always hit dead ends, said Soosay, an instructor of history, linguistics and Indigenous art at Maskwacis Cultural College in Maskwacis, Alta., 100 kilometres south of Edmonton.
1980 cold case victim finally identified
Kern County Sheriff s Office/YouTube
and last updated 2021-04-23 17:23:26-04
KERN COUNTY, Calif. (KERO) â On Friday, the
Kern County Sheriff s Office announced that they had successfully identified the victim in a cold case dating back to 1980.
The victim, Shirley Ann Soosay, was found stabbed to death on July 14th in an almond orchard off Highway 99 in Delano just north of Bakersfield. She was identified in February 2020.
According to a video presentation provided by the KCSO, in 2008 her murder was linked by the Department of Justice to
Kern County Sheriff s Office/YouTube
Chouset was convicted in 2018 of killing Jane Doe #5, as well as another woman in Ventura County.